“The first is the EPA’s idiotic PM 2.5 standard”The EPA bases the standard on a large body of scientific evidence. Enter PM2.5 and health int Google scholar. Breathing PM2.5 increases your bad cholesterol which is why it is associated with heart attack and stroke.They are not doing this just to pick on you.

“the largest contributors to PM 2.5 are coal-fired electrical generation plans and diesel-fired furnaces and boilers”

Interesting math you have there. They did a chemical analysis of the air in Fairbanks during winter and found that 70-80% of the pollution was woodsmoke.

“There have been instances where the federal government is setting controlled burn fires and at times failing to control fires on their property at the same time”

The EPA does not count anything we have no control over (such as controlled burns or wild fires) against us in their air quality analysis. We need to control our own mess.

« rationalcitizen wrote on Thursday, Oct 13 at 10:49 AM »

Steve,I would said air quality falls under planning. After all, why else would planners decide not to put a giant smelter in the middle of residential neighborhood? Other than it looks nasty too.

Unfortunately the city can’t always predict what’s going to happen within a certain type of zone…but I am sure they didn’t plan for a bunch homes to start emitting unfiltered mercury, heavy metals, particulates, etc into the atmosphere.

« rationalcitizen wrote on Thursday, Oct 13 at 10:44 AM »

Tarbaby,I should have said EPA is forced to behave like a parent, because we are to juvenile to solve the problem ourselves.

« blue_eyes wrote on Thursday, Oct 13 at 09:42 AM »

Plenty of communities meet the new EPA 2.5 standard. We’re the only ones in our state who don’t.Excess PM2.5 is not like MBTE. Decades of research and hundreds of studies show a proven health hazard to fine particulate pollution. The EPA is not full of empty threats – they have pulled highway funds from states before. Sometimes for longer than a year.

Speaking of EPA sanctions – continued non-attainment will make it much harder to get new power plants built, modified, or permits renewed (coal or otherwise) – they’ll have to meet a much tougher pollution standard than they would have if we were in attainment. So our electric bills will also increase.

You really think Anchorage and the Marine Highway System and all the other federally funded transportation programs in the state are going to say “Oh, we’ll use our own funds and let Fairbanks keep its dirty air?” Nope. Change is coming.